13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle
Epic space stories. From the first Moon landing, to Apollo 13, to the Space Shuttle. Told by the people who made them happen.
NEW: Season 3: The Space Shuttle. A sci-fi dream that changed spaceflight forever. From the boldest test flight in history to one of Nasa’s darkest days – the Challenger disaster. Space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock tells the awe-inspiring story of the programme that brought triumph and tragedy. Some scenes in this series use recreated sound effects.
Season 2: Apollo 13. Apollo 13 should have been the third Moon landing, but after an explosion, it almost ended in tragedy. Told by the people who flew it and saved it. Presented and co-written by Kevin Fong.
Season 1: 13 Minutes to the Moon. The first Moon landing. In the final dramatic 13-minute descent to the Moon, the Apollo 11 mission came close to going badly wrong. Communication was breaking down, technology was failing and fuel was running out. This is the story of how the first Moon landing was saved. Presented by Kevin Fong.
13 Minutes is produced by the BBC Audio Science Unit for the BBC World Service.
Season 3 theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 36 minutes
- Episodes
- 37
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2025
13 Minutes to the Moon: Bonus - The making of the music
Oscar and Grammy-winning composer Hans Zimmer reveals how he crafted the iconic 13 Minutes to the Moon theme. In this special episode, Zimmer reflects on the art of storytelling, his creative process…
13 Minutes to the Moon: 12. Live from Houston
Fifty years after the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing, we’re at Houston’s Rice University, where President John F. Kennedy delivered his iconic “We choose to go to the Moon” speech to reflect on one …
13 Minutes to the Moon: 11. The 13 minutes
Nasa archive audio of the astronauts’ dramatic 13 minutes to the Moon, as heard by mission control. All of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s tense moments as they make space history. The recording cap…
13 Minutes to the Moon: 10. ‘For all mankind’
The epic story of the final 13 minutes of the Apollo Moon landing, including Nasa archive tape of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s historic space mission. The men and women behind this pioneering sp…
13 Minutes to the Moon: 9. Tranquility Base
Apollo 11 mission is on the edge of failure, minutes away from the Moon landing. Fuel is low, the tech is stretched and astronaut Neil Armstrong is struggling with the rocky lunar surface. He’s flyin…
13 Minutes to the Moon: 8. ‘We’re go for powered descent’
The 13-minute descent to the Moon begins, and it’s all going wrong for Apollo 11. They’re going too fast, alarms are flashing and the crew loses contact with Nasa mission control. The epic moments th…
13 Minutes to the Moon: 7. Michael Collins: The third man
The story of Michael Collins, Apollo 11’s third astronaut, in Nasa’s historic spaceflight. He played a crucial role as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. During those final 13 minutes…
13 Minutes to the Moon: 6. Saving 1968
Nasa astronauts circle the Moon for the first time, capturing an iconic photo of Earth. Back home, the country is rocked by war, riots and the assassinations Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy.…
13 Minutes to the Moon: 5. The fourth astronaut
How a briefcase-sized computer, less powerful than a smartphone, pioneered space tech for the first Moon landing. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin rely on the software to guide their spacef…
13 Minutes to the Moon: 4. Fire to the Phoenix
Nasa’s ambitions for a historic Moon landing by the end of the 1960s are threatened by a deadly launchpad inferno. Three astronauts are killed, and it is one of the Apollo programme’s darkest moments…
13 Minutes to the Moon: 3. Long Island Eagle
The extraordinary story of the ‘Eagle’ spacecraft, which landed astronauts on the Moon. Built by Long Island engineers, it was a spacecraft like no other - one designed to land on another world. The …
13 Minutes to the Moon: 2. Kids in control
Crisis strikes Apollo 11. The Moon landing is threatened when an alarm goes off. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are minutes from the lunar surface when the spacecraft computer flashes error code 1202…
13 Minutes to the Moon: 1. ‘We choose to go’, Apollo 11
President John F. Kennedy boldly vows that America will land the first astronaut on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. It’s the height of the Cold War. But with superpower rival the Soviet Union lead…
13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 1
The final part of our audio countdown to the launch of 13 Minutes to the Moon, with Kevin Fong. Lift off is on 13 May 2019.
13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 2
Hans Zimmer has composed the 13 Minutes to the Moon theme music. It is the first time the Grammy and Academy Award winner has created music for a podcast.
13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 3
Introducing 13 Minutes to the Moon, with Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham and former Apollo engineer Poppy Northcutt - the first woman to work as an engineer in an operational support role in NASA'…
13 Minutes to the Moon: Trailer, T-minus 4
The countdown begins. The story of Apollo 11 – coming soon.